Pancho Villa's

The 2013 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the current (2013) edition.

After 25 years cooking the food of her Mexican childhood on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, Mayra Nuñez and her team have their successful formula off pat. Twinkly lights and bold colours are cheery on a quiet weekday evening, though a stack of sombreros waiting for that big stag or hen party hint at the weekend transformation to party central. A combination starter makes a good menu snapshot. Quesadillas oozing with chilli con carne and chicken wings sticky with honey and garlic necessitate much licking of fingers, while deep-fried jalapeños stuffed with cheese are hot, hot, hot. Enchilada-based mains come veggie style with mushrooms, butter beans and chunky guacamole as well as the more usual beef, chicken and chorizo, while rustic lamb and barbacoa are big, meaty platefuls. Pancho Villa – whose flamboyantly bewhiskered and sombrero’d photo greets you at the door – is Mexico’s favourite bandit and Robin Hood figure, though if you make it through to tequila sticky toffee pudding or churros (Mexican doughnuts), you may feel more like a plump and very happy Friar Tuck.

• High point: Good choice of Mexican beers and tequilas
• Low point: Quiet dining may be off the menu on weekend nights